The Best Graphics Cards for 2026

John Burek, Michael Justin Allen Sexton — Tue, 28 Apr 2026 23:39:10 +0000

Hunting for a new GPU for gaming, multi-display, or something else? Here's everything you need to know to shop the latest Nvidia GeForce, AMD Radeon, and Intel Arc video cards with confidence. (We've tested 'em all.)

First off, what does a graphics card do, and do you really need one?

If you're looking at any given prebuilt desktop PC on the market, unless it's a gaming-oriented machine, PC makers will de-emphasize the graphics card in favor of promoting CPU, RAM, or storage options. Indeed, sometimes that's for …

Have You Built or Upgraded a PC? Rate Your Top Peripherals and Components to Win Big

PCMag UK — Sat, 25 Apr 2026 21:00:00 +0000

We want to hear your thoughts on monitors, keyboards, mice, cases, CPUs, internal storage, and graphics cards. Take our survey to help determine our Readers' Choice awards.

Take the PC Peripherals and Components Survey Now

Take other PCMag surveys. Each completed survey is a chance to win a $250 Amazon gift card.

NEW: Home Security
TVs, Streaming, and Home Entertainment
Nvidia Just Made Path Tracing Better and Easier to Run

Jon Martindale — Mon, 20 Apr 2026 20:05:47 +0000
Maybe it'll make those retooled RTX 3060s that bit better.
Nvidia has developed a new path tracing algorithm that could make it far easier for developers to implement advanced lighting techniques in their games, TechPowerUp reports. It makes it look better, too, by reducing visual errors, making it unnecessary to …

Rumor Tips Nvidia RTX 5060, 5060 Ti Graphics Cards With 9GB VRAM

Jon Martindale — Wed, 15 Apr 2026 18:13:19 +0000
The new cards skirt the limitations of 8GB of VRAM, but that's not a lot of extra headroom.
Nvidia may be planning to launch two more versions of its entry-level RTX 50-series graphics cards with 9GB of VRAM to address memory shortages and rising graphics card prices.
As TechPowerUp reports, the two cards are Nvidia's RTX 5060 and 5060 …

Nvidia Warranty Payouts Are Up 11x Since 2024, But Why?

Jon Martindale — Wed, 15 Apr 2026 14:08:25 +0000
You're always going to get a certain number of defective products during a huge rollout, but massive AI data center orders likely contributed to warranty payouts, too.
The downside to being the world's biggest graphics card seller is that sometimes those GPUs go bad, and Nvidia has to cover it. According to WarrantyWeek, Nvidia is now paying out over 11x as much for warranty-returned GPUs as …

Rumor: Intel Prepping Midrange 'Nova Lake' CPU With Integrated Graphics

Jon Martindale — Tue, 14 Apr 2026 15:45:59 +0000
With 12 Xe3P cores, the next-gen CPU could make for a capable Steam Machine alternative.
Intel may be set to launch a midrange CPU in its Nova Lake generation later this year, with powerful integrated graphics, in what could be a major blow for entry-level discrete graphics card makers, VideoCardz reports.
The processor will reportedly …

Nvidia, Intel Texture Compression Techs Cut VRAM Use Dramatically

PCMag UK — Mon, 06 Apr 2026 13:24:06 +0000
Will AI save us from the memory crunch it helped create?
Intel and Nvidia showed off their respective AI-powered texture-compression technologies over the weekend, demonstrating impressive reductions in VRAM use while maintaining texture quality, or even improving it, WCCFTech reports.
Although no game developers have used either technique in public releases yet, any VRAM reductions in …

I Watched Nvidia's Controversial DLSS 5 Turn 'Potato Faces' Into Photorealistic Characters

Michael Kan — Tue, 31 Mar 2026 16:25:12 +0000
Is Nvidia's forthcoming DLSS 5, shown GTC 2026, a game-ethics question mark? Is it spectacular? Yes and yes. Here are my first impressions from a demo Nvidia showed me.
Big leaps in game graphics used to be obvious—the kind you’d notice instantly, no squinty side-by-side comparisons required. Lately? Not so much. Gains have been real, but incremental, easy to miss unless you’re looking for them.
Nvidia thinks it can change that tempo. Its …

Feds Arrest Trio for Nvidia GPU Smuggling Scheme Involving Supermicro Servers

Michael Kan — Wed, 25 Mar 2026 22:06:39 +0000
A Chinese national and two Americans allegedly tried to smuggle export-controlled Nvidia chips to China. But Nvidia and Supermicro noticed something was off about the orders and canceled them.
The US has disclosed a new Nvidia chip-smuggling case that also seems to involve San Jose-based server manufacturer Supermicro. It comes days after a Supermicro co-founder was arrested in a separate investigation, but in this instance, it looks like Nvidia and Supermicro played a role in …

Intel Targets AI Workstations With Memory-Stuffed Arc Pro B70 and B65 GPUs

Michael Justin Allen Sexton — Wed, 25 Mar 2026 13:00:00 +0000
Intel's new Arc Pro cards flex 32GB of memory, aiming squarely at demanding AI pipelines and model-heavy workloads.
The tech industry is undergoing rapid change as everyone focuses on AI. Intel is among the companies revving up new silicon and hardware to drive AI workloads, and it is now pushing its AI hardware to the next level with new Arc Pro B70 and B65

I Tried Some Games With Nvidia's DLSS 5. It's Controversial, Yes, But Also an Eyeful

Michael Kan — Tue, 24 Mar 2026 12:13:28 +0000
Is Nvidia's forthcoming DLSS 5, shown last week at GTC 2026, a game-ethics question mark? Is it spectacular? Yes and yes.
Moving from one console generation to the next, we used to see huge graphical leaps. Remember those days? We thought that kind of epic bump was a thing of the past.
Now, we're not so sure. Nvidia’s newly announced DLSS …

Nvidia's CEO on DLSS 5 Backlash: The Haters Are Wrong

Michael Kan — Tue, 17 Mar 2026 20:56:20 +0000
Nvidia's CEO, Jensen Huang, defends DLSS 5 against some of the early criticism that it smears too much generative AI on PC games.
At first glance, some gamers may hate Nvidia’s DLSS 5 and its use of AI to add ultrarealistic effects to PC games. But the company’s CEO, Jensen Huang, says the early critics are “wrong.”
“We created the technology, we didn’t create the art,” Huang said, describing …

We Tried Nvidia's DLSS 5: Is It Just an AI Image Filter, or the Future of PC Gaming?

Michael Kan — Tue, 17 Mar 2026 15:29:05 +0000
Plenty of unknowns circle around Nvidia's upcoming DLSS 5, just announced and demoed at GTC 2026. But it looks to offer the biggest leap in graphics we've seen in a long while.
Remember the huge graphical leaps we’d get moving from one console generation to the next? Those days are over...or so we thought.
Nvidia’s newly announced—and already controversial—DLSS 5 may be the graphics jump that gamers have been waiting for. …

Whoa: Nvidia's DLSS 5 Can Make PC Games Look Real

Michael Kan — Mon, 16 Mar 2026 19:24:49 +0000
At GTC, Nvidia teased DLSS 5, which uses an AI model to add photorealistic graphics to games, enhancing characters and environments. Expect it to arrive this fall.
Nvidia teased an upcoming new version of DLSS that can add photorealistic graphics to games in real-time, going beyond merely increasing frame rates.
Nvidia’s CEO, Jensen Huang, previewed DLSS 5 during a keynote at the company’s annual GTC event, a few months after the GPU maker …

AMD Pushes a New Category of PCs: The Agent Computer

Michael Kan — Fri, 13 Mar 2026 21:37:41 +0000
AMD sees an emerging class of PC users running AI models locally on powerful, AI-optimized machines—a new category poised to compete with Nvidia's DGX Spark.
Time will tell if the term takes off, but AMD wants to create a new product category called the "Agent Computer."
The chipmaker points out that while people mainly access chatbots and AI tools online, some also run AI agents locally on their own hardware, as …

Hate Waiting for Compiling Shaders? New Microsoft Gaming Tech Might Kill It Off

PCMag UK — Fri, 13 Mar 2026 14:43:09 +0000
Intel and Nvidia confirm that support for Advanced Shader Delivery is coming this year.
At GDC 2026 this week, Microsoft, Intel, and Nvidia announced a new method for delivering precompiled shaders as part of game downloads, eliminating the long wait times when gamers first boot up a title. As VideoCardz reports, this Advanced …

Leak Tips Nvidia GeForce RTX 5050 Refresh With 9GB of VRAM

Jon Martindale — Tue, 10 Mar 2026 16:19:09 +0000
More VRAM is nice, especially since it's faster too, but how much will it cost?
Specs for the rumored GeForce RTX 5050 refresh with a boost in memory and speed have leaked, giving us a potential first glimpse at what the card can do.
As WCCFTech reports, the headline upgrade is 9GB of VRAM, instead of the 8GB found in the …

RTX 3060 Comeback Incoming? Samsung Reportedly Restarts 8nm Production Line

Jon Martindale — Mon, 09 Mar 2026 14:06:12 +0000
No word yet on whether it will be the 8GB or 12GB version, though.
In a world of AI buildout-induced shortages, gaming beggars can't be choosers, and the venerable RTX 3060 might soon be one of the best value GPU buys in 2026. Nvidia is reportedly reviving the card as soon as next week, with Samsung now ramping up its classic 8nm fabrication line …

The Best Graphics Cards for 4K Gaming in 2026

John Burek, Michael Justin Allen Sexton — Tue, 03 Mar 2026 23:52:38 +0000
You need a powerful graphics card to run cutting-edge PC games at 4K resolution. These high-end GPUs are the top performers we've tested for pixel-packed gaming.
Gaming, in general, is a computationally intensive task that is highly demanding on the components inside your PC, but many factors can increase or decrease the workload of running games. In general, the more graphically impressive a game is, the harder it will be for the computer to run quickly. …

Developer Uses Older AMD GPU for Game Demo, and the Results Are Impressive

PCMag UK — Tue, 03 Mar 2026 16:20:53 +0000
Developer Pearl Abyss gave Digital Foundry preview footage of its upcoming open-world game Crimson Desert, and it used the last-generation RX 7900 XTX and Ryzen 9 7900X3D.
In the world of gaming GPU performance, AMD is typically considered an also-ran. With a mere 10% of the Steam gaming market, perhaps that's wise. But developer Pearl Abyss chose to use an AMD GPU to showcase the performance and visual beauty of its upcoming …

With This Microsoft Update, Game Devs Could Have New Trick for Bolstering FPS

Jon Martindale — Mon, 02 Mar 2026 16:30:46 +0000
With Shader Execution Reordering, some Intel and Nvidia GPUs deliver up to 90% greater FPS in a specific path-tracing benchmark, Microsoft says. But AMD might miss out.
Microsoft's recent update to its Agility SDK could hold the key to big performance leaps in ray tracing for Intel and Nvidia graphics cards, though it may take another generation for AMD to benefit to the same extent.
With Shader Execution …

AMD FSR 4.1 Leak Shows Big Performance Mode Image-Quality Improvements

Jon Martindale — Sat, 28 Feb 2026 17:32:22 +0000
It's a few months late, but it could help close the gap with Nvidia's DLSS 4.5.
AMD's FSR 4 is a very capable upscaling algorithm, but it doesn't beat Nvidia's DLSS 4.5. FSR 4.1, however, might make it more of a toss-up between the two, especially at lower-quality settings, according to a new leak.
The FSR …

Nvidia Pauses Latest GPU Driver Release Over Fan and Clock Speed Problems

Jon Martindale — Fri, 27 Feb 2026 15:30:33 +0000
Some users found their GPU fans ignored custom fan curves or didn't show up in monitoring software. Others said their GPU fans stopped responding altogether.
UPDATE 3/3: Nvidia has released WHQL driver 595.71, which replaces the previous release and fixes the bugs.
Original Story:
Nvidia has had to claw back a driver it released for its RTX graphics cards after it was found to cause a number of strange bugs for RTX 50 owners.
As

Intel Touts Big Performance Boost for Several Games With New Arc GPU Driver

PCMag UK — Thu, 26 Feb 2026 17:45:04 +0000
Witcher 3 performance jumps by up to 35% on new Panther Lake laptops.
Intel's Arc series of graphics cards and its newer Xe onboard GPUs continue to see significant performance gains well after their releases, thanks to ongoing driver refinements.
In the latest release, Intel claims up to a 35% performance improvement in

Nvidia Warns of 'Very Tight' GPU Supplies for at Least Next 2 Quarters

Michael Kan — Wed, 25 Feb 2026 23:39:31 +0000
Nvidia signals it might not see any year-over-year growth in gaming GPU revenue as it prioritizes chips for data centers.
Don't expect PC graphics card pricing to come down in the near term. Nvidia is warning that supplies remain “very tight” amid the ongoing memory shortage.
On Wednesday, the company reported earnings for fiscal Q4, which ended on Jan. 25 and covered the holiday sales period. …

AMD GPU Prices Fall in Japan. Turns Out There Is a Limit to What People Will Pay

Jon Martindale — Fri, 20 Feb 2026 20:41:22 +0000
After big price increases in December, AMD GPU prices have fallen by as much as 20%.
It might feel like AI data center overspending means consumers have little power to influence major hardware companies, but in Japan, AMD GPU prices have fallen by as much as 20% because people aren't buying them, TechPowerUp reports. …

I Fired Up MSI’s $5,090 GeForce RTX 5090. It’s Equal Parts Fierce and Bananas

John Burek — Tue, 17 Feb 2026 19:29:52 +0000
Liquid-cooled, big-time overclocked, and shining with a side-panel display, the GeForce RTX 5090 Lightning Z is MSI's latest off-the-hook uber-GPU. Let's install it and see how it runs!
In a year that's likely to be barren of exciting next-generation graphics card developments, we've had a Lightning strike. At CES 2026, MSI launched its 2026 version of what amounts to a very extra graphics card in today's climate, the GeForce RTX 5090 Lightning Z. …

I Fired Up MSI’s $5,090 GeForce RTX 5090 Card. It’s Absolutely Unhinged

John Burek — Sat, 14 Feb 2026 13:41:59 +0000
Liquid-cooled, massively overclockable, and packing a glorious side-panel display, MSI’s GeForce RTX 5090 Lightning Z flagship is a wild, no-limits flex for the 0.1% of PC builders. Join me as I unbox it, install it, and put it on the track.
At CES 2026, MSI spent the better part of an hour’s press conference running through the fine points of its latest extra-extra-extra flagship graphics card, the GeForce RTX 5090 Lightning Z. The company has made Lightning Z-class cards before, notably models like the VideoCardz reports, this GPU went through the wringer before and after its repair, with literal holes in the PCB and a …

It's Ugly Out There. GPU Price Checks Reveal Big Hikes As Memory Crunch Hits

Michael Kan — Tue, 20 Jan 2026 22:51:11 +0000
In just a few months, many powerful Nvidia graphics cards are out of stock or facing exorbitant price hikes. The situation is especially bad for the GeForce RTX 5090.
It took only a few months, but the graphics card market has turned from relatively healthy to horrible as the worsening memory shortage has led to price hikes and scant supply.
In September and October, we did price checks at major retailers and

Rumor Tips 15% Price Hikes on GPUs From Asus, Gigabyte

Jon Martindale — Tue, 20 Jan 2026 16:56:06 +0000
The report suggests that price increases will be tied to VRAM capacity, so those with 16GB or more will likely see the full 15% increase, while models with 8GB may see only a 10% bump.
AMD and Nvidia may not have announced any GPU price hikes yet, but their board partners might. NotebookCheck, citing a report out of Taiwan, says Asus and Gigabyte will raise prices on RX 9000 and RTX 50-series graphics cards by the end …

Nvidia: RTX 5070 Ti Cards Are Not 'End of Life,' All Models Still Shipping

Michael Kan — Fri, 16 Jan 2026 18:18:51 +0000
Asus told a YouTuber that it would no longer produce any 5070 Ti models, but has since backtracked after Nvidia denies that the GPU is dead.
UPDATE: Asus has backtracked on its assertion that the RTX 5070 Ti is out the door.
"Certain media may have received incomplete information from an Asus PR representative regarding these products," the vendor says in a statement. "The GeForce RTX 5070 Ti and GeForce RTX 5060 …

Nvidia May Prioritize RTX 5060, 5060 Ti Production in 2026

Jon Martindale — Wed, 14 Jan 2026 22:04:42 +0000
High-end GPU prices are already back to almost double their MSRP.
UPDATE 1/15: Nvidia denies that its 5070 Ti cards are on the way out. "Demand for GeForce RTX GPUs is strong, and memory supply is constrained. We continue to ship all GeForce

Confused by GPUs? Here's How to Figure Out Which Graphics Card You Have

Whitson Gordon — Tue, 13 Jan 2026 21:24:56 +0000
Knowing what GPU you have can be confusing, especially if you're relying on an integrated graphics card. Here's how to check what card you have in your computer.
Graphics are a huge part of the PC gaming experience. Unfortunately, not every computer is built for the best games on the market. If you built your computer, it can be very expensive to update the internal components. Meanwhile, laptops and pre-built PCs don't always …

Gamers Find That Nvidia's DLSS 4.5 Can Upscale 240p Pixel Junk, Make It Playable

Jon Martindale — Tue, 13 Jan 2026 17:31:58 +0000
Gamers upscaled a 240p render from Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion to 720p, transforming it from a pixelated mess to a functional game, among other examples.
Nvidia's new DLSS 4.5 2nd generation Transformer model for dynamic upscaling is more capable at smoothing out the errors in higher resolution play, but it's also proving exceptionally good at upscaling very low-resolution games.
As VideoCardz reports, gamers have been taking games from 240p to 720p …

Hands On With MSI's GeForce RTX 5090 32G Lightning Z: Is This the World's Most Extreme Graphics Card?

John Burek — Mon, 12 Jan 2026 11:00:00 +0000
Only 1,300 will ever exist! From its massive copper cold plate to its full-surface LCD screen, this is the most overbuilt graphics card ever. (1,000 watts of GPU power, anyone?)
LAS VEGAS—When a new graphics processor launches from Nvidia, AMD, or Intel, it’s easy to assume that every graphics card bearing that GPU will perform more or less the same. In reality, the silicon is only the starting point. What ultimately defines a graphics card—its …

Can the Zeus GPU Really Outshine Nvidia's RTX 5090?

Jon Martindale — Sat, 10 Jan 2026 13:00:00 +0000
At CES, Bolt Graphics makes grandiose claims about its long-awaited GPU. If sounds too good to be true, but with the major players focused on AI data center, we'll take what we can get.
Graphics processor startup Bolt Graphics made an appearance at CES 2026 this week to discuss its long-awaited Zeus GPU, where it made grandiose claims of path tracing performance in excess of what an Nvidia RTX 5090 can manage, including a lower power …

Nvidia Reportedly Hits Pause on RTX 50 Super GPUs. Here's Why

Jon Martindale — Fri, 09 Jan 2026 16:16:54 +0000
In theory, these chips would flesh out the range and close any gaps between the top models, making them more competitive at comparable prices. But does Nvidia even need that right now?
Nvidia has reportedly delayed plans to release RTX 50 Super series graphics cards, in part because its existing GeForce RTX 50 series cards are still selling well, and AMD is not exerting any competitive pressure at the moment.
As VideoCardz reports, citing Chinese site BoardChannels, Nvidia has …

PCMag UK graphics-cards

Everything Old Is New Again. Leak Tips Return of Nvidia RTX 3060 12GB in July

The Best Graphics Cards for 2026

Have You Built or Upgraded a PC? Rate Your Top Peripherals and Components to Win Big

Take the PC Peripherals and Components Survey Now

Nvidia Just Made Path Tracing Better and Easier to Run

Rumor Tips Nvidia RTX 5060, 5060 Ti Graphics Cards With 9GB VRAM

Nvidia Warranty Payouts Are Up 11x Since 2024, But Why?

Rumor: Intel Prepping Midrange 'Nova Lake' CPU With Integrated Graphics

Nvidia, Intel Texture Compression Techs Cut VRAM Use Dramatically

I Watched Nvidia's Controversial DLSS 5 Turn 'Potato Faces' Into Photorealistic Characters

Feds Arrest Trio for Nvidia GPU Smuggling Scheme Involving Supermicro Servers

Intel Targets AI Workstations With Memory-Stuffed Arc Pro B70 and B65 GPUs

I Tried Some Games With Nvidia's DLSS 5. It's Controversial, Yes, But Also an Eyeful

Nvidia's CEO on DLSS 5 Backlash: The Haters Are Wrong

We Tried Nvidia's DLSS 5: Is It Just an AI Image Filter, or the Future of PC Gaming?

Whoa: Nvidia's DLSS 5 Can Make PC Games Look Real

AMD Pushes a New Category of PCs: The Agent Computer

Hate Waiting for Compiling Shaders? New Microsoft Gaming Tech Might Kill It Off

Leak Tips Nvidia GeForce RTX 5050 Refresh With 9GB of VRAM

RTX 3060 Comeback Incoming? Samsung Reportedly Restarts 8nm Production Line

The Best Graphics Cards for 4K Gaming in 2026

Developer Uses Older AMD GPU for Game Demo, and the Results Are Impressive

With This Microsoft Update, Game Devs Could Have New Trick for Bolstering FPS

AMD FSR 4.1 Leak Shows Big Performance Mode Image-Quality Improvements

Nvidia Pauses Latest GPU Driver Release Over Fan and Clock Speed Problems

Intel Touts Big Performance Boost for Several Games With New Arc GPU Driver

Nvidia Warns of 'Very Tight' GPU Supplies for at Least Next 2 Quarters

AMD GPU Prices Fall in Japan. Turns Out There Is a Limit to What People Will Pay

I Fired Up MSI’s $5,090 GeForce RTX 5090. It’s Equal Parts Fierce and Bananas

I Fired Up MSI’s $5,090 GeForce RTX 5090 Card. It’s Absolutely Unhinged

It's Ugly Out There. GPU Price Checks Reveal Big Hikes As Memory Crunch Hits

Rumor Tips 15% Price Hikes on GPUs From Asus, Gigabyte

Nvidia: RTX 5070 Ti Cards Are Not 'End of Life,' All Models Still Shipping

Nvidia May Prioritize RTX 5060, 5060 Ti Production in 2026

Confused by GPUs? Here's How to Figure Out Which Graphics Card You Have

Gamers Find That Nvidia's DLSS 4.5 Can Upscale 240p Pixel Junk, Make It Playable

Hands On With MSI's GeForce RTX 5090 32G Lightning Z: Is This the World's Most Extreme Graphics Card?

Can the Zeus GPU Really Outshine Nvidia's RTX 5090?

Nvidia Reportedly Hits Pause on RTX 50 Super GPUs. Here's Why